Bowling Score How To Guide

How to Score Bowling

Bowling is a seemingly simple game. Roll a large black ball
down a narrow lane and hit the white objects, called bowling pins, at the end
of the lane. If your ball goes too far off course, it goes into the gutter, and
if you don’t knock down all ten pins on your first try, you get a second try to
knock down whatever pins are left. However, this simplicity is deceiving.
Scoring a bowling game is actually a bit complex, at least until you grasp the
concept. Fortunately, bowling scores follow a handful of simple and consistent
rules.

Don’t get overwhelmed in the beginning. It sounds like a
lot, but once you see it in action, there isn’t a lot to it.

Spares, Strikes, Frames, Bowling Games

If you do knock down the rest of the pins, that is called a
spare. If you managed to knock down all 10 bowling pins on the first try, that
is called a strike, and you don’t get a second roll, though you don’t need one.

Each one or two roll attempt to knock down the ten bowling
pins is called a frame. There are 10 frames in one game of bowling. If a spare
or strike is scored on the final, or tenth frame, the bowler is allowed either
one bonus roll, in the case of a spare, or two bonus rolls in the case of a
strike. Regardless of whether or not the bowler rolls strikes or spares, no
bonus frames are allotted past two.

A typical bowling score sheet show blank boxes for each
frame, plus a set of boxes for the additional rolls a bowler gets for scoring a
spare or strike in the last frame. Although each frame does get a score, it is
not always possible to fill in a particular frame’s score at the end of the
bowler’s turn. This is because some scoring requires knowing the score of
subsequent turns.

Scoring a Bowling Frame

The most basic bowling score involves simply recording one
point for each pin the bowler knocked down. This is not the case if the bowler
does knock down all ten pins on either the first or second try.

If the bowler does not knock down all ten pins, then the score
for that frame is just the number that were successfully knocked over. For
example, if a bowler hits 5 pins with the first roll, and 3 pins with the next
roll, then the score for that frame is 8.

If the bowler knocks over all ten pins with the first try, a
strike, then the bowler does indeed get 10 points for knocking down all the
bowling pins. However, that isn’t all the points for that frame. Instead, the
bowler gets to count the results of the next two rolls, regardless of their
outcome, as additional points for that frame.

If the bowler knocks over all ten pins after two rolls, a
spare, the number of pins knocked down on the bowler’s next roll, regardless of
outcome, is added to the frame’s score.

Subsequent Strikes and Spares

An additional complication arises when the bowler achieves a
strike and then scores a strike on the next roll. Since the bowler is allowed
to count the next two rolls toward the score in the first frame, a subsequent
strike gives the bowler 10 more points for that frame. However, the bowler is
still allowed to count the points from the next roll as well toward the
original frame.

This means that in the case of multiple sequential strikes, a
frame may require waiting for the results of two more frames, or turns, for the
bowler to know the score of the original frame. In addition, the subsequent
frame also cannot be scored immediately as the bowler gets to count the results
of the two rolls after that strike toward the score in the second frame. Thus, it
is possible that two frames in a row will have open scores.

After the third roll, the score in the first frame can be
calculated. However, many bowlers subscribe to a superstition that claims bad
luck for filling in a frame’s score before the bowler has stopped rolling consecutive
strikes. Therefore, most bowlers will wait until the string of strikes is broken
before calculating the bowler’s score, even if there is enough data to complete
a frame’s score.

Added all up the best possible score for a single game of
bowling is 300 which is achieved when the bowler rolls a strike for every regulation
frame, and a strike for each of the two bonus frames.

As a former financial planner, CFP, and systems administrator, MCSE, as well as a father to two young children, Brian writes on numerous topics including personal finance, technology, and parenting skills for dads.

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)

Google AdSense Host API

This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

Facebook Login

You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

Maven

This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)

We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.

Conversion Tracking Pixels

We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.

Statistics

Author Google Analytics

This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)

Comscore

ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)

Amazon Tracking Pixel

Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)